Playing around with buttons

Who remembers playing with the button box as a kid?  I do.  My mum had an old biscuit tin full of buttons that I think must have come from my grandma's house, and it was always the biggest treat to be allowed to sort through them.   And nowadays, buttons are cool and crafty, and I've been using them to make pictures as birthday gifts:

There is method in this madness

Happy BD Lesley!

I've been using a combination of new ones, vintage ones from the op shop, and also adding beads and other elements to create texture and interest.  I'm pretty happy with the results so far!

crochet  +

Catie's birthday tulips in progress

Almost finished tulips - just needs some bling.  Catie loves it!

Thrift shop manifestation (with chickens)

Oooooooooooh!  The op-shop gods were smiling on  me today!

Holds 2-3 cups, and doesn't leak

I thoroughly believe in op-shop manifestation, as described to me by a friend years and years ago.  It goes like this - at some point, if you are a good and (moderately) virtuous person who charity shops regularly, things that you have been looking for appear as if by magic, when least expected.

You could be going to the op-shop for a totally different thing (today I was looking for winter PJs for DS, didn't find them) and you turn around and there's something you've been thinking about for ages.

Squeeeee! He's delightful

It's been something of a joke among my girlfriends
that I drink a lot of tea, and love chickens, but
don't have a chicken teapot.  I was actually eyeing one
off at the markets on Sunday, but I was already in

trouble for buying a child's 'tag-along' bike (like the one you can order here), and a decorative plate with, you guessed it, chickens on it, and so my lovely friend C said I couldn't get it.  She's limited me to one chicken item per Sunday on our weekly trek to the Gepps Cross Markets (fruit and veg one side, car boot sale the other)!  As she points out, there is little point in saving money on groceries if I then go and spend the saved amount on trash / treasure.

But now I'm really really glad I listened to her (and sometimes I don't) because this one blows it out of the water.  AND it was only FIVE DOLLARS.  I'd have happily paid 30 for it, and didn't have to.  Thankyou, oh op-shop gods!

A new hen for my brood

Today I bought a chicken for 20 cents (Australian), my cheapest (cheepest?) one ever. She's a vintage, red wire hen egg-basket, with gorgeous flapping wings. She came from a local op shop (charity shop if you're in the UK, thrift store if you're in the States), and I saw an identical one on Etsy this evening for $15 US. I reckon I got a bargain!